Chronicle Five: Grail

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CHAPTER TWO:
Following Dr. Hammond's instructions, the Seraphim fly to Kosovo in search of the Grail. On their way to their hotel, they run through a war zone. Sebastian and Chip's car avoids the worst of it. Bail and Rasputin do not. They have to endure their driver getting his head blown off, Bail using Forces magick to stop the car, and Rasputin climbing into the front, over the headless driver, to drive away. Both cars do see something additionally odd: Sebastian (Chip missed it) sees a Kindred run superfast by them, and Bail and Rasputin see something run over their car, leaving a dent.

At the hotel they try to relax and talk with the professor. They agree to search a certain monestary. Going there, they look and find a secret room leading to a huge hall. There are footsteps in the dirt and a circular mark left in the center of the room. Could it have been the setting place of the Grail? Returning to the hotel, they decide to rest and wait until dusk. Rasputin, though, goes to the library with the professor, to do some research. They find something saying that the Defender must keep the Grail from the 'fiends.' Sebastian, the most knowledgable among them in supernatural lore, recognizes this as another name for the Tzimisce clan of Kindred. They decide therefore, to venture out in the night.

Only as they are about to leave, do they discover that none of their guns has firing pins. Rasputin manages to make one before they go, using Matter, and loads it into his gun. As they leave their room for the night to investigate, they are stopped by a massive, moving, Gargoyle. He tells them to give him the cup. They tell him that they do not have it. Sebastian is about to talk him into taking them to his master, when he moves to attack. He throws some kind of dust on the magi, and thereafter none of their magick works. Chip cuts him once with Excalibur before his master arrives: a Tremere. A Tzimisce shows up too. After the Tremere explains who he and his servant are, the other introduces himself as an Old Clan, non-Sabbat, Tzimisce. They take the magi upstairs to talk. In short time, they are convinced that the magi are fools, far beyond the reach of their power and decide to kill them.

All four fight back, but are steadily losing since they have no magick and only Rasputin has a gun (and he can barely work it); only Chip is able to hold his own, wielding his sword. Sebastian's Do, without his magick is not enough, and Bail, with no offensive capabilities, can only try to trick one of them into chasing him and falling off the roof, but he is not agile enough to outfox the Kindred.

Then the Defender and his comrades show up. They are Alexandros, Rupek, and Sirena. They chase off the three Kindred attacking the magi. They then blindfold the magi and take them back to their headquarters, where they also meet Dimitru, Marie, and Chavi. (Sebastian takes particular interest in Marie, whose beauty seems to exceed human limits.) They show the young magi the cup. It is the Cup of Christ, but not the Grail. It has no powers beyond that of faith. Bail is taking pictures the whole time, but once catches glimpse of a tattoo on Alexandros' arm, the Black Hand tattoo. The odd thing is, asked twice, Alexandros said he is not part of the Camarilla or the Sabbat. He wants to take the pictures from Bail, but Sebastian campaigns to keep them. Yet Alexandros insists. Reluctantly, Bail gives him the disk. Yet Alexandros says that if they can be trusted to give him this disk, they can be trusted with what it entails. He returns it. He says for the Grail, they should ask for the Master of Secrets in Istanbul. They take the cup back to the professor to make sure. He confirms that it is not the Grail. Chavi returns it to its hiding place. The Seraphim ready for leave for Turkey.

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CHAPTER THREE:
With Professor Gerald Hammond, the four mages fly to Istanbul, Turkey, to find the Master of Secrets. When they get to the hotel (which they found on the internet) they ready their restored weapons and equipment and then link together to build an anti-detection field of magick around their room. It works. Then they try to work together to construct a view of the city, to find supernatural figures. They see a hell of a lot and then all black out.

Everyone awakes in a room that is the same but not. Everything is jagged and sharp, even the things outside their window. All their equipment is the same. Bail tries to open the computer, but cuts himself in doing so, and then finds that in trying to operate it, it makes no sense. Chip carefully answers the door and it appears to be some kind of a manifestation of Gerald. He is bringing the pizza in. However, it looks dangerous. Chip tries to talk to him, with no luck. Sebastian tries to also, but only gets a razor sharp pizza thrown at him. He ducks. Chip nails Gerald with the flatside of his sword (the only normal object with them) and shatters him.

Then Wrinkle shows up. He's like "Oh jeez, what'd you guys fuck up so bad?" The problem is not that the group is in a paradox realm: but four paradox realms, simultaneously. He goes to get other paradox spirits to help the cabal and leaves them with his 'apprentice,' Ray. They learn that he is an ex-Ecstatic, who used to be on earth, but screwed with time too much. In fact, the cabal learns that he was the original owner of Mr. Goodhit, a talisman that Sebastian acquired after saving Wrinkle from being trapped in the paradox realms.

They meet with Ferandwi, spirit of Correspondence, who appears as Austin Powers, then a gameshow host, then Marilyn Manson on stage, before returning them to the hotel room, where Wrinkle returns with the spirit of Entropy (the Dust Witch), and Life (Ky1eem). 'Powers' starts hitting on the Dust Witch. Ray and the rest are just like, what the hell? Wrinkle returns with D'robo, spirit of Spirit, and together, they let the cabal go.

After eating the real pizza when Gerald returns, the cabal warily tries their search again. They find heavy concentrations in two sectors: a club in lowtown, and one outside the city. They decide to check the former. Bail travails the near umbra, carrying the teams' weapons. The other three walk in the door. It is a freak show: piercings, sex, drugs, you name it—it is kinky. They circle around and meet Bail in the bathroom. They propose to split up. Sebastian will try to get close to a female supernatural and the others will follow Chip. Chip goes to see the crowd that they cannot penetrate and finds a small, one-foot-tall, grey, pointy-eared man. He speaks many languages, but turns to Chip and says in English, "I am the Master of Secrets, you are looking for me?" Chip says, "Yes." Rasputin goes to get Sebastian, who failed miserably, getting shot down by a hot woman with no eyes, hiding behind sunglasses and bitterness.

The Master leads them down to his sanctum, where he meets with a young girl, and then tells them to rest. They do. The next day, he tells Bail and Rasputin to take the girl (Evelyn) to the circus, whie he talks to Chip and Sebastian. Nothing insidiuous happens at either location. Sebastian and Chip learn a lot of secrets and are told to take the girl with them; she is an extraordinarily gifted child-mage. The Master feels that they can now raise her better than he can. He also tells them to continue on to the capitol of Thailand, where they will continue their search.

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CHAPTER FOUR:
The Seraphim, arrive in Bangkok with Gerald and Evelyn. Gerald says that they need to visit a Buddhist monestary 35 miles out of Muang Fang (which is about 380 miles from Bangkok). They decide to rent out a Land Rover and purchase a map to guide them to Muang Fang. They drive day and night, knowing it should take about 40 hours to drive there. Taking turns driving and sleeping, they get there safely. On arriving, they find a gas station and refill the gas in their tank and their spare canisters. They also look for a local guide to take them to the monastary. Gerald finds a young boy (perhaps 15 or 16) who can take them there. He and Gerald come back with nine donkeys, which they will ride through the mountains.

When they reach the monestary, hours later, it is reaching nightfall; the monestary is huge and foreboding. Their guide simply walks up to the door and rings the big knocker. A small bald man lets them all in. He says his name is Chin Ma. The six Westerners introduce themselves. Gerald says that they were sent by the Master of Secrets; Sebastian says that they search for the Grail. Chin says they should sleep, it is late. They are invited to eat first and then they all go to sleep.

When they wake up and eat breakfast, Sebastian tries to search the temple with Spirit sense and Correspondence, but botches and only gets a headache. Chin asks why they search for the Grail, and for how long. Chip and Sebastian tell him and he says that they are near their goal. He then takes them to test their worthiness. He takes them into a room and tells them to prepare themselves; there are many computers in this room. He asks them if maybe they didn't see the satellite dish coming in. He tells them that if they can protect a shipment of medical supplies to a village a day away, he will tell them the location of the Grail. They agree, leaving Evelyn and Gerald behind at the monastery.

The four magi return to Muang Fang. Three trucks of supplies are arriving. Colonel Vladic Stenvinstoff meets them. They all plan strategy. He, Bail, Rasputin, and a driver take the lead truck, Chip and three others take the middle truck, and Sebastian and three more take the rear vehicle.

Three hours into the trip, they see a jeep up ahead. Bail does a Spirit check on it; he doesn't recognize it, yet it's clearly supernatural. While no one's looking, he steps sideways. The jeep suddenly bootlegs and roars toward the party; the driver jumps out and the passenger keeps driving, pulling out a gun. The Colonel and Rasputin return fire (as does Chip from the mid-vehicle), but whoever it is just leaps towards the truck, as the jeep rams into the lead vehicle. By now, they can see that it is a werecreature -- it appears to be a wererat. Right after the collision, Bail unleashes the Mad Howlers on the ratkin, and with their spiritual fury, it is destroyed.

However, a new bunch of men run over the hill from behind the jeep, shooting machine guns. The men guarding the trucks respond. Bail notices small spiders crawling up towards the rear driver, so he runs back and shocks them, sending Forces through the gauntlet. Sebastian takes cover in the truck and puts himself in an accelerated time pocket. Rasputin fires at one of the dozen men charging and takes him out. The Colonel also opens fire, taking out several of the attackers. In return, two of the defenders men get taken out and the Colonel himself is crippled.

Chip takes out three more with a great slash of his sword. Bail is watching over the spiders, when suddenly something grabs him from behind, and he is spun around in pain to see a giant spider. It burns into him with a huge bite, sapping his endurance.

The convoy troops fire and another attacker falls. Sebastian shoots and kills another, while Rasputin misses. Suddenly Bail pops out of the umbra, cut up severely, and critically injured. Sebastian, moving super-fast, covers him, looking around for an incoming attack, and when nothing immediately follows him, jumps his initiative up with Time magick.

Sebastian, accelerated through time, and with the capability to attack instantly, waits for the umbral attacker; Chip mows down another with Excalibur, while Rasputin shoots one, but he's healthy enough to run away. Bail expands his senses to Sebastian and Chip, and they both see spiders running away in every direction; Sebastian cannot act through the gauntlet, and is so frustrated, he uses his Correspondence and Entropy to strike down the only human who had gotten away. Sebastian asks what the thing was. Bail answers that its spirit was similar enough to the ratkin that he suspects it was some kind of spider changing breed.

There are five men dead from the convoy, but they are able to move forward to the town and deliver the goods. Chip and Sebastian stay up that night on watch, Chip using Life magick to boost their endurances, and both combining their Time magick for enhanced reflexes, but nothing happens. They drive home, suffering no further assaults.

Yet on arriving back at the monestary, they see smoke in the distance. The monestary has been attacked: bodies of the monks strew the ground, as do bodies of the same type of men who were attacking them the past day. Of the monks, many seem to have broken bones, but have no bruises on them. Inside, the computer room is smashed, and Chin is dying; he is only able to mutter something about the Jade Mirror. For their part, Bail and Rasputin fail to get any information out of the smashed computers.

Chip and Sebastian, however, are able to use postcognition to discover what happened. They see a bunch of men coming up towards the monastery. The lead man holds his hands to stop the men, and then shoots an energy blast into the door. They can see that it is M Bison, Vega, Sagat, and their men. They start killing all the monks, and Bison chases Chin, smashing him into the computers, killing him. They see Vega pull out the Jade Mirror. They leave when a helicopter comes for them, taking Evelyn and Gerald: beating and tying them up. Using Correspondence, Sebastian is able to track the helicopter to Mriganka, the home of Bison, but there things start to get fuzzy, and for a split second Sebastian sees someone in the helicopter who he thought he recognized, but can't remember who.

Rasputin finds a box in a corner of the monestary, and the seal on it is M Bison's. It opens and has a tape on it that identifies Sebastian and Chip, and it says he warned them not to mess with his part of the world. Then he starts counting down. It is a bomb, so all four run, just as it explodes. Pulling themselves up from the explosion, they see the streetfighters Fei Long and Dhalsim. The latter says that he had a vision seeing the four magi and M Bison. They agree to join the mages in their quest to take down M Bison.

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CHAPTER FIVE:
The Seraphim introduce themselves to the famous Streetfighers. Fei Long and many of his friends have already been killed by M Bison in their war with him that has extended past the arenas. Ken, Guile, and Thunderhawk have already fallen, Long explains. He also says that they are losing the war. Sebastian tells him that he and his friends will help him win that war. Fei Long wants to parachute in on M Bison immediately.

A helicopter arrives, with Ryu, Cammy, and three others – two of which have thick hoods hiding their identity – the last of which is Sai. Chip asks how many foes there will be. Fei Long answers at least 12 streetfighters, among their other goons. One of the streethfighters in the helicopter, Cammy, recognizes Sebastian. The mage suddenly remembers her from a tournament he saw in Rochester, when he was with the chantry there. One of his associates, Ivan, knew her. They speak briefly. Then Ryu says their talking is getting nowhere. He warns that they will not be able to use the helicopter to leave the island of Mriganka.

One of the hoods falls and reveals Phoenix Bright; her eyes are black, with red embers, attired in a sixties’ style outfit. The other hooded person reveals himself also, it is Kitiran, a catlike Streetfighter. They all know that death might be all that is awaiting them, but are more than willing to make that sacrifice to stop Bison.

As they approach the island, their fears are confirmed: they must parachute in. Missiles are coming at them fast, rushing their descent. Chip and Bail follow Cammy out, and Sebastian and Rasputin jump soon thereafter. They all make it out of the vehicle safely.

As they fall, they can see Bison, Sagat, Balrog and Vega’s faces carved into the side of the mountain, showing off the leader’s vanity. The winds are strong and not all of them are able to land together.

Sebastian, Chip, Cammy, Fei Long, and Sai make it down together. They land directly on top of a building. Sai says it is the Cathedral of Heavenly Unity. She doesn’t know much about it, though. But she does know that the group is maintained by M Bison and even worships him.

Ten monks come rushing at them, ready to attack with staves. Chip swings twice; the monk dodges his first strike, but then falls under his second blow. Fei Long and Cammy each take out another monk, as does Sai. Sebastian Do-strikes another. The Monks strike back with psionic blasts, mauling Chip with a mental blast and hurting Sebastian. The Streetfighters each take a shot too, but are more prepared for that type of assault.

Fei Long and Cammy lunge into the remaining monks, attacking. Chip can only swing wildly with his sword, disoriented from the psionic blasts still, and cuts through the railing on the roof, almost falling over the mountainside. Sebastian speeds up Chip’s passage through the time stream, enabling him to reorient himself and keep on the building, but he still can’t catch himself. Luckily, Sai manages to pull him back towards safety. Fei Long then leaps up and takes out the final three in one magnificent move.

Under Fei Long’s leadership, they move through the temple, trying to find something called the Undercity. Once they move in, they encounter three villains, with glowing eyes and bare chests roaring towards them. Sebastian strikes, but to little effect. Cammy and Fei Long charge in and also do little damage, despite what sounds like breaking bones. Sai cuts one too, but it seems unfazed. Chip runs one through, but falls over, his momentum carrying him forward, landing on him, and is burnt by its electricity slightly.

Recovering, Chip swings again, faster than the rest can see and takes out a second. Sebastian tries to focus his Entropy on the third, but to little effect. The three Streetfightersare are able to finish him off, though, as they concentrate all their might on that single enemy.

Cammy, Sebastian, and Chip investigate a computer they find and discover that there are three nuclear missiles hidden in the cathedral. While Cammy uses the computer to disable the launching mechanisms, Sebastian and Chip disable the detonating mechanisms with their Entropy magick. In that time, Fei Long and Sai discover the entrance to the Undercity, where M Bison waits.

The fivesome move down a large freight elevator. Suddenly, from above, a man descends upon them with glowing hands, just missing Fei Long. He seems to recognize the Streetfighter (it is Akazahn). He kicks at Fei Long’s head, and it explodes like a grapefruit. Chip counters with a piercing thrust, injuring him. Then Sebastian roars forth with an Entropic attack and causes a major cerebral hemorrhage, killing him instantly. Sebastian promises that they will get vengeance beyond even Akazahn's death.

When the doors open, there is a warehouse, where four more of Bison's streetfighters are waiting for them. It is the group known as Rolling Thunder: Mace, Matrix, Nychus, and Legion. Mace tells them to leave or die. Sebastian offers the same choice in return. The battle begins.

Mace and Chip lunge at each other. Chip swings downward first; Mace reaches up to block the strike. Unfortunately, the blade goes right through his metallic arms. Mace swings with his other arm, hitting Chip for minor damage. Cammy jumps at Matrix, kicking her hard, taking her out. Sai strikes at Nychus, blocking with one weapon, striking with the other. Nychus counterattacks, to no effect. Sebastian lashes out at Legion, causing him to have a heart attack; the villain falls.

Sebastian quickly punches Legion down, finishing him, while kicking at Nychus–but just barely missing with that attack. Nychus ignores Sebastian and knees Sai with her bladed leg armor, hurting her badly. Mace swings at Chip, but he ducks under his wild punch. Then he swings upward, cleaving Mace in half. Chip then slides over to Nychus and Sai, and cleaves Nychus’ head right off.

Sai is amazed by Chip’s sword. Sebastian asks his friend to heal Sai, which he does. Sebastian then goes to speak with Cammy, who is standing over the only member of Rolling Thunder still alive. She says that she used to be friends with Matrix, that she is not on M Bison’s side. Sebastian elects to trust Cammy's advice.

The four agree to move on. The come upon a hangar, filled with planes and assorted repair equipment. The flight deck does not have many lights on. Suddenly, they notice ninjas descending upon them: Shade, Ravana, Midnight, Crusher, and Corona (who was once in Detroit with M Bison).

Cammy leaps into battle and goes after Midnight, hitting him. Shade maneuvers behind Cammy, hitting her. Sai whips both her weapons at Ravana, hurting him very badly. He pulls the sais out, though, and throws them back at Sai, hitting her; she goes down. Sebastian pulls all of the heroes into an enhanced time field, effectively doubling their speed.

Crusher comes forward at Chip, under Ravana’s orders. Corona, meanwhile, jumps at Sebastian, trying a combo maneuver, leaping off the wall, but then missing as she attempts to grab the Mage. Midnight also attacks Sebastian, sensing he is very dangerous, but misses.

As they attack again, both Midnight and Corona miss the dodging Sebastian, while Cammy and Chip dodge Shade and Crusher's attacks. Cammy, following Midnight's movements, suddenly strikes at him again: this time taking him out. However, Ravana runs over and finishes Sai; in return, Sebastian unleashes Entropy on Ravanna, hurting him. Meanwhile, the super-fast Chip swings at Crusher, hurting him.

Cammy, enraged at Sai’s death, leaps forward and strikes Ravanna, unleashing a jumping kick to a smash combo: taking him out. However, his body dissolves before she can finish him. Sebastian watches Midnight and Corona circle around him, then strikes out at Corona with Entropy: blood leaking out of her head, she falls, dead. Crusher swings at and misses Chip, while Midnight finally hits Sebastian, though for for minimal damage, and Shade misses Cammy, who dodges.

Cammy counterattacks, hitting Shade and hurting him. Shade tries to return the favor, but fails to connect. Cammy then hits again, taking Shade down. Chip swings to no effect on Crusher, who misses in return; Chip swings again, however, and connects, this time taking him down. Sebastian then finishes Midnight with two well-placed Do strikes.

Sebastian then makes sure that any of the villains who may have survived are finished, though Chip decides to stabilize Crusher with his Life magick, since he seemed reluctant to fight. Meanwhile Cammy cuts through a fresh onrush of ninjas. They then put Crusher in a stasis field so he cannot present too much of a threat—just in case.

Meanwhile, Bail and Rasputin, blown off course, along with Phoenix Bright, land in the water. They all take damage from the hit and then are struck by Harpoons. Frogmen are coming at them from below.

Bail ignites one of their airtanks, using a spark of Energy magick and the frogman explodes. Phoenix fires a blast and melts another’s face. Rasputin uses his magick to jam the last one’s gun. Bail tries to catch that one with his magick, but as he is now the last one, he decides to flee.

Before them then appears the form of a squid, but it is mutated somehow. Bail tries to unleash spirit magick on it, but fails. Phoenix unleashes another blast, frying one of its tentacles. Rasputin tries to freeze the water around it, but also fails. The squid lashes back and hits all of them, hurting them badly.

Trapped in the squid’s grasp, Rasputin fires a massive Mind blast, while Bail and Phoenix fail to do anything; the Ecstatic seems to actually hurt himself in the effort. Continuing to struggle, Rasputin and Phoenix manage to eventually take out the beast, but Bail is nearly crippled in the attack. Somehow, the others manage to drag him ashore. However, he is too injured to go on.

Thirty men approach the trio, led by a man who calls himself Elias Sin. After a quick mental discussion, Bail and Rasputin agree that they have to surrender. Elias asks them how many of them there are and they tell. They have nothing to lose; they both figure that that knowledge won’t help their enemies. Phoenix follows suit. They are all taken captive.

Meanwhile, Sebastian, Chip, and Cammy wind their way through the corridors leading to Undercity and end up coming upon many gunmen, Dhakmar, and Elias Sin, who watches over their friends. Elias has been waiting for them. He tries to tell them that he killed another of their friends. Sebastian does not even wait to hear. He leads them into battle.

Dhakmar and Chip engage; Chip gets scraped; but then swings Excalibur, cleaving Dhakmar in half. Sebastian unleashes his Entropy, crippling Elias Sin; Sebastian then slits his throat. Cammy frees Phoenix, Bail, and Rasputin. Apparently, they know Kiritan has been killed, but they haven’t heard about Ryu or Dhalsim. Chip can stabilize them with Life magick, but not heal them enough to go on.

Sebastian, Cammy, and Chip go through a large majestic door. There are several paintings placing M Bison in victorious poses. Then the lights go off. Chip and Sebastian try to ignite their senses, but only Sebastian ends up able to see. Cammy immediately goes down under Balrog’s vicious punch. Sebastian manages to warn Chip just before Sagat’s punch sears by him. Sebastian is also able to move out of the way just enough to only suffer a small flesh wound against Vega's sudden assault.

Then M Bison appears from up above and confronts Sebastian.

Just as the Shadowloo leader engages, Ryu and Dhalsim jump in out of nowhere, and engage against Balrog and Sagat. They urge the Pendragons to take out Bison. However, there is still Vega. Duvalier spins on him, while he urges Chip to engage Bison until he can finish the Spaniard. He unleashes his Entropy on him, but Vega still advances, yet the Spaniard misses with his raking claw attack, obviously affected. Chip carefully moves towards the evil M Bison only to be struck hard, getting knocked backwards.

Sebastian and Chip rotate enemies, trying to throw their opponents off guard, however, Bison just punches Sebastian out of his way, knocking him into the far wall. Bison announces that he only wants to fight “The King.” Chip gets back and up and engages Bison, slicing him with his sword, but incredibly doing no damage. Sebastian, however, takes advantage of Bison ignoring him and unleashes a brutal Entropic assault, making the villain scream in pain. Vega can only manage to pursue Sebastian, moving towards where Bison knocked him, but is not able to reach him.

Chip strikes Bison again, this time digging deep. Bison rears back to kick Chip, but does only minor damage. Sebastian turns on Vega before he can strike, targeting his Entropy and Correspondence together to find the most true path for the bullet roaring out of the pistol suddenly in his hand, firing, and sends a shot directly through the center of his temple; Vega’s mask splits apart as he falls over backward, dead.

M Bison, taking Chip more seriously, attempts to punch him again, but to no effect; thus Chip decides to focus his Life magick on increasing his strength. Meanwhile, Sebastian begins a Time incantation. Bison hits Chip again, hard, but Chip takes a moment to heal himself. Sebastian then finishes his spell, which speeds both of their movements through the timestream.

Sebastian then tries to use another Entropic attack, but M Bison is able to block it somehow. Yet once again, the dual-pronged attack distracts Bison. Chip swings Excalibur and slices him badly again. M Bison lunges forward to try his psionic torpedo, but Chip meets him there with Excalibur, striking the archvillain in mid-attack, taking him down: energy pouring out of his cleaved chest.

As he dies, M Bison says that for many years his people ruled the world. He says that he was the Exalted among them, but now he is dead. He says that the mages are responsible for genocide and that the ghosts of his people will haunt all supernaturals, using humanity as its tools. Then he fades.

Dhalsim won’t let Sebastian finish off the fallen Balrog. Sebastian and Chip explain the legacy of King Arthur. Ryu and Dhalsim are impressed. Yet, Ryu also notices that his powers are gone. Sebastian offers to teach him a new way: their way. Dhalsim says he already knows those ways, and stretches away. Sebastian makes sure Cammy’s okay. She is. She also is impressed. However, both her and Ryu are ready for peace, neither accepts Sebastian's offer to be trained as a mage. Sebastian advises them not to tell anyone what they saw here.

Soon thereafter, U.N. troops begin filtering in. Two supernatural advisors come with them. Ryu and Cammy explain to them what happened. As Chip and Sebastian take the Jade Mirror, the agents take Evelyn and disappear. Chip seems to have recognized the man and Sebastian the woman. Gerald thinks that they both looked like the two mages. Sebastian and Chip trace their appearance back in time and search for the two; they discover that they are indeed somehow their children. They can speculate that they came back from the future somehow and wanted Evelyn. The two appear less than a year old, and despite their appearance are only actually around an age in year. With their departure, no one seems to remember them except Chip and Sebastian.

The Seraphim secure the Jade Mirror, and make sure Bail, Rasputin, and Phoenix are okay. She also desires peace and has no interest in becoming a mage. They make sure Crusher and Matrix are okay, they are. Rasputin and Bail try to reprogram and fix Matrix’s cybernetics. She then, is the only who takes up their offer. She has friends in Chicago who are more technological: Adepts. Bail speaks to her about joining them, or just running with them and learning, as Rasputin, the Ecstatic, does.

Searching the building, they stumble upon M Bison’s journal, which chronicles his millennia of existence, from Caine, to Arthur and Merlin (curiously referred to as the second incarnations, and notes Chip and Sebastian as the third). It talks a little of his people, how he was the last, something about the destruction of their continent, and he wanted to repopulate the earth with his people, most recently with the Streetfighters; he also mentions pantheons of Gods which he ultimately destroyed because they were too corrupt, too like humans. For some reason, it is obvious that he hated supernaturals. He said only because he didn’t know what to expect, that Caine survived their first encounter, but he was resistant to their powers somehow. His mood becomes increasingly negative, even suicidal in recent journals. After inventing M Bison, he became evil. More and more he had dreams about returning to his people, so they could get vengeance on the supernaturals. Chip and Sebastian stop to stabilize the physical structure of the text with orderered Entropy magick, realizing that it is very fragile. Some of the last entries speak of the Grail and how unleashing its powers were key to his plans. Once they move finish reading it, Rasputin and Bail plan to start scanning the journal in its entirety into their computers.

From the Jade Mirror, Gerald is able to decipher, “Only he who sees and can truly see, he who hears and can truly hear, may invoke the power of this mirror.” After some experiments, they learn Awakened can draw quintessence from their node. And once in their lifetime, an Awakened person can ask it one question.

Bail volunteers to ask where the Grail is. After much discussion, he asks, “What is the exact location of the Holy Grail.” He receives a mental image of the lower coast of China. He sees Hong Kong. He moves down into a warehouse. He can’t identify anything specific, but he thinks he would know it if he saw it. Gerald asks if they will ask anything else. Sebastian tells Rasputin to ask who possesses it. He does. They see Sebastian’s daughter. Sebastian muses that that eliminates his need to ask a question.

Gerald is intrigued and does some quick work on the computer, then dismisses his notions. Sebastian pushes him to share. Gerald says that there are a small number of scholars who have studied the Grail and the Cup of Christ who speculate that Christ had a child with Mary Magdalene. And that that child was what was called the Holy Grail. But Gerald dismisses it. It all comes together for Sebastian. Bison wanted to unleash the power of the Grail; he had Evelyn. Sebastian’s daughter had the Grail; she had Evelyn. He then asks the Mirror if Evelyn is the Holy Grail. The Mirror says yes.

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CHAPTER SIX:
It is now the beginning of September and the quest for the grail continues, as Sebastian, Chip, Bail, Rasputin, Matrix, and Gerald head for Hong Kong to find their children and the Grail. . .